


When the luck isn't on your side...

by mysaldate



Category: Notice Me Senpai! (Video Game), 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs
Genre: Hinted Akutagawa/Higuchi, International Fanworks Day 2019, One-sided Dazai/Akutagawa, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 04:25:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysaldate/pseuds/mysaldate
Summary: Akutagawa has been struggling to get any sort of praise from his mentor for so long he barely believes he even deserves any at this point. Luckily enough, his loyal kouhai has just the thing he needs to relax!





	When the luck isn't on your side...

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write this for a very long time but always felt like it would simply be too short for a proper story. Now that I know it's ok to just put up drabbles, I finally feel free to share this idea with everyone!

It's another day and another mission and once again, she couldn't be useful. Higuchi takes a deep breath as Akutagawa walks by, wanting to ask him how could she help. She already knows the answer - there's nothing she can do. Nothing she could possibly achieve will get her superior what he really wants. And to her, it seems like he's getting thinner and thinner every day, almost disappearing in front of her very eyes.

Which is why she has a plan.

It's nothing much. Just a small little app but she's certain it will help him, at least the tiniest bit. She quickly runs after him to catch up with him. It's harder than it would look like. After all, Akutagawa is quite strong even if he doesn't believe that. He finally stops after she calls out to him for the fourth time. Panting, she finally can stop.

As she looks back up at him after catching her breath, she offers a shy smile, only making his scowl go slightly darker.

"Akutagawa-senpai!" She bows down quickly, holding out a phone towards him. "Please try this game out!"

At first he just stares at her and she counts seconds till she gets slapped again. Then he simply snatches the phone out of her hands, looking at the shining screen. The doubts in his eyes only seemed to grow though.

"Please, just give it a try!" Higuchi pleads again, her desperate look just barely getting through to Akutagawa. But it does get through in the end and he, though hesitantly, keeps the device. As he leaves the scene, Higuchi lets out a sigh of relief. Maybe a sweet little game could cheer him up a little.

For the next few days, everything stays quite the same except for those rare few times she spots Akutagawa actually refilling the coffee in the game. She doesn't think much of it, naturally. After all, it's not like anything too special is going on just because he's now playing a game.

It takes about a week in total till she notices a change. Akutagawa looks weirdly nervous that morning, even easily irritable than usual and snapping at the slightest trigger. She notices he's tapping something in the phone she gave him earlier during one of his breaks and it makes her more curious about the reason behind his unusual grumpiness.

A few more days go by in relative peace. Then one day he suddenly doesn't arrive at all. That not only puzzles her but it also makes her very worried. From the Black Lizards, she gains the information that he hasn't been captured or anything. Clearly his sickness must have got so bad he can't get out of bed then! And so, Higuchi  sets off to see if she can be of any use to her superior.

When she knocks on his door, she expects a slow reaction but after waiting for almost fifteen minutes, she starts seriously considering just barging in. Finally, the door slides open and Akutagawa's gray eyes fall upon her. He opens the door and lets her in without any complaints. The place is rather messy and there's hardly any food.

"Senpai, are you alright?" She asks carefully. She knows how much he dislikes to talk about his health condition. However, he only gives a small nod this time, sitting back into his bed and wrapping himself warm in the bedsheets before pulling out the phone.

Higuchi is left staring in disbelief as Akutagawa stares at the screen, almost not even blinking from all the focus. He seems to only be checking something before he turns back to her.

"Come take a look Higuchi." He speaks out in a rather quiet tone. And she just obeys without thinking twice about it of course. On the screen, she sees what he has been building the last couple days. And she has to admit she's rather impressed.

Not only is his café as big as it can be, filling up three full screens, he has also bought some of the most expensive items to put on display. The Gothic Table Set, Yakitori Stand, even the Goldfish Scooping Booth. And she can't not notice more than a half of the places is filled with senpais, some of which only appear after serving a high quality coffee beans.

"Senpai, how long have you spent on that?" She asks with a slight worry in her voice but he doesn't respond to her. Instead, he opens up the gallery and starts showing her the CGs he's collected so far. He doesn't forget to tell her about each and every senpai that has visited his café so far. She would complain but he looks so serious about it she doesn't have the heart to stop him.

She sits next to him for as long as he wants her to. Hearing him ramble on and on about a game is quite comical but it just makes him seem all the more... human. He does sound excited, well excited for him at least, so Higuchi feels satisfied as well. She lets him talk his heart out, listening to everything he has to say and occassionally asking about a few details here and there, something that only fuels his will to let her in on everything.

She leaves his house later that day only to go get some food for them both and then returns back, bringing her own phone with her this time. On her way, she gives a call to Hirotsu to tell him Akutagawa is sick and she will be staying with him just in case he needed her help. It's a stupidly obvious lie but he doesn't really ask any questions since it's coming from his superior.

Higuchi and Akutagawa spend most of their day on the bed, comparing their cafés and senpais. It turns out Higuchi misses quite a bunch of them and she's lucky enough to have Akutagawa help her find the right items to please as many as possible. It is indeed a very productive day.

~~~

_Omake:_

Dazai is walking down one of the busier streets of Yokohama, humming a cheerful tune when he suddenly gets the feeling of being watched. It's a familiar one, causing a pleasant chin to run down his spine, causing slight goosebumps to tickle under his bandages. He turns to one of the alleys as casually as possible, ready to meet whoever is waiting there for him.

He doesn't have to wait for long before a dark-clothed figure steps in his way. He sees the determination in his former protegé's eyes but it's not exactly a pleasant sight. After all, their last couple of meetings weren't exactly ideal. However, Akutagawa steps forward with a picnic basket in his hand, weird as it looks, and it causes Dazai to lose his constant cool.

Akutagawa then hands the basket out, looking down to his own shoes to avoid looking at Dazai, even though he was the one who brought him here in the first place.

"I brought you some coffee and sweets, Da- senpai!" Dazai is taken aback by that new title probably even more than by the fact that Akutagawa is offering him sweets and coffee. "I didn't know which one you would like so I took more. Please enjoy your meal!"

And with that, the basket is pressed into Dazai's arms and Akutagawa storms off on one of the many roofs of Yokohama. Up there, he sits down, hiding his still burning-red face in his hands but slowly, it's a smile that can be seen on his pale face. Perhaps he's been doing it wrong the entire time?


End file.
